No less than five lap records took a tumble at the King’s Auto Parts Cullen Bullen Raceway season opener last Saturday evening hosted by the Portland District Motor Sports Club.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
During the 40 race program Ernie Havas claimed the new Microsprint record, Louis Rodriguez lowered the Compact Speedcar record, Rob Swain bowled over the Modlite record and young Jaiden Healey shaved time off his own record.
But the most spectacular was Mitchell Duggan and Kevin Sawdy battling it out for the Street Stocker class 15 lap feature on a superbly Kevin and Andrew Blackley prepared track surface for Sawdy to finally post the best time.
Duggan had an almost perfect night, winning two heats and the Hi-Tec Oils Street Stocker feature from Chris Marino and Sawdy while Andrew Blackley won the second heat from Corey Foyle and Marino.
Great close racing came from the Lithgow City Council Four class. Even though Josh Goldie ran riot in the heats Amber Culverson, Tarah Swadling, Bek Giffin and Stuart Brown ran bumper to bumper with Giffin claiming a sensational victory in the ten lap feature over Swadling, Goldie, Culverson and Brown.
Jaiden Healey, 12, won the Portland RSL Club Junior feature followed closely by Jackson Goldie, diminutive Max Essai and debutants Dean Giffin and Chelsea Essai.
Healey followed on from his second place in the RSA Queensland Junior new star Championship, winning two heats. The opening heat was taken out by Jackson Goldie who claimed 6th place outright in that Qld stouch.
Rounding out the meeting were the open wheeler divisions of Compact Speedcars, Microsprints, Modlites and three classes of Vintage demonstrations.
The 15 car line up of Compact Speedcars was broken up into two groups and it was action right from the opening heat with Craig Hickey overturning his car in turn one after bouncing into the tyre barrier during a dice for second place.
Rod Hodkinson won two of the group one heats with Ayden Elliott the victor of that incident packed opener while Hickey returned to finish third in heats two and three.
Dan Biner won two of the group two heats giving Mark Heaton the other heat win chased by Louis Rodriguez.
The 20 lap feature was a spectacular affair after Hodkinson smacked the pit fence and rolled on the ninth lap giving the remaining cars an Indian file restart.
Heaton eventually claimed the victory over Brad Forgeard and Biner – truly great racing.
Rob Swain totally dominated the Modlite class winning all three heats over Ronnie Scheers Jnr, Kenny Brooks and Andrew Martin.
Jason Summers won the opening heat but Ernie Havas dominated the Microsprint class, winning two heats and the feature from Summers, Rhys Marchant, Paul Curran, Lachlan Isaacs and Queenslander Jason Glynn.
The good crowd of spectators braved the bitingly cold winds to take in the splendid demonstrations put on by the Vintage Sprintcars, Speedcars and Modifieds.
Results of the pointscore was as follows:
Lithgow City Council Four Cylinders:1st Josh Goldie Orange, 2nd Tarah Swadling Orange, 3rd Amber Culverson Orange .
Tony Scott Plant Hire Juniors: 1st Jaiden Healey Portland, 2nd Jackson Goldie Orange, 3rd Max Essai ACT.
Coates Hire RSA Street Stock: 1st Mitchell Duggan Commodore Portland, 2nd Chris Marino Commodore Sydney, 3rd Corey Foyle Falcon Gilgandra.
Portland Newsagency Compact Speedcar feature: 1st Mark Heaton, 2nd Brad Forgeard, 3rd Dan Biner.
Portland Automotive Modlite feature: 1st Rob Swain, 2nd Ronnie Scheers Jnr.
Coates Hire Microsprint feature: 1st Ernie Havas, 2nd Jason Summers, 3rd Paul Curran.
The brand new 2017-18 speedway season continues on Saturday, October 21 at the King’s Auto Parts Cullen Bullen Raceway.